Tai chi as a fighting art.

[Son Goku the monkeyking]

Okay, in pretty much any other martial art style you learn to defend your self against a opponet by learning your forms and by practicing your fighting skills by sparring but in Tai chi all you do is forms like six harmany or 22 form boxing how can possibly be able to defend yourself in an actual fight if you if you don't even practice your actual fighting in moves in actual combat after all we all know what happens if you only do your forms but never do any actual combat fighting

or practice ( incase you do not know you will get beat up because you don't know how to do your moves in actual fighting) I can see if you do pushing hands techniques like u do in a pushing hands tournament BUT HOW FAR CAN PUSHING HANDS TOURNAMENT MOVES TAKE U. i am really confused someone please respond.

PEACE

[Mr. Mike]

I cannot offer a real answer to this...all I can say is that you have to experience push hands for yourself, and try a few attacks on an accomlished tai chi practitioner...no, not a chi ball thrower.

[JusticeZero]

If all you do is forms, you can't fight. Good taiji teachers do things other than just forms, at least with the students who have progressed far enough to have absorbed the principles in the forms to some degree. I'm not a big believer in sparring, though, because it's so highly unrealistic while appearing realistic.

[Mr Pockets]

It won't make you a fighter.

[JusticeZero]

I don't know, i've heard of some of the things the advanced taiji students at a school I have some relations with have been doing, and they sounded like things that would make for capable combatants. Maybe not sportfighters, but I would not especially want to have to fight them. They were doing quite a bit more than just doing forms. Of course, it wouldn't be apparent from just stopping into the school and taking a class or two.

[dtstiachi]

Tai Chi, "Grand Ultimate Fist" was from it's inception, a fighting art. There are numerous post here on this site that can help you with this issue. If one were to learn the form the way it was intended to be, they would be an excellent fighter. The Tai Chi form has been watered down by many people and the true deadly nature of the art has been largely lost. There are some schools that still teach Tai Chi as a martial art, and there are still some legitimate Tai Chi Masters roaming the planet who understand the nature of the art and what it was intended to be when it was practiced as a fighting art. I am a Tai Chi practictioner, and I would NOT want to mess with someone who is a legitimate master. I am not saying that Tai Chi is the "ultiamate" art, but it was and still is an effective form of self defense not only against a non martial artist, but it is effective against MA as well. Doing the "form" in and of itself will not make you fighter, but if you take the postures and movements out of the form and you train them and use them like you would in their combat applications, then yes, you could be good at combat because you would have an understanding of what techniques to utilize to defend yourself against an opponent.

By the way, At my school we DO isolate the movements of the form and use them in their combat applications along with practicing push hands. Both of these help one in understanding how to use Tai Chi in a self defense situation.

Pushing hands is a sensitivity drill. It teaches you to absorb your opponent's attack and use their energy against them. There isn't room enough here to talk about it fully, but Tui Shou (push hands) is a great way for one to learn how to apply only a small element of Tai Chi in a combat situation.

Feel free to dialog with me further on this.

[JusticeZero]

I hate that whole "Grand Ultimate" thing too, actually. It sounds so amazing, but it's a translation which is TECHNICALLY correct - but the meaning is totally different, because the words have multiple meanings, and the translation didn't hit the most commonly used one. The main thing to note on "Grand Ultimate" is that the word "Ultimate" in this case is not translated with the definition of "best", but rather with the less often used in English definition of "the endpoint", like the tips of a pole. I think that there is something similar going on with the word "Grand" as well.

[ovine king]

the characters for tai chi do not translate into english properly at all. the best i have ever heard is tai=very chi=very.

i know it doesn't make sense in english but hey, it is another language.

what? you expect things to translate properly and directly all of the time?

[Mr Pockets]

Whatever it used to be, whatever it is, moving around slowly, or even quickly, doing forms, won't teach you to fight.

[dtstiachi]

Correct Mr. Pockets,

However, understanding the martial applications of the postures an movements in the form and isolating them as to practice the combat application of each movement can give you insight as to how to defend yourself against an attack. The form in and of itself is not combat, but there are martial applications that are present all throughout the form and when one is taught how to use those techniques, the art can be very effective as a fighting art.